Guidance for (Acting) Returning Officers administering a UK Parliamentary election in Great Britain
The verification process
The verification of the used, unused and spoilt ballot papers is a legal requirement, and is central to the declaration of accurate results.1
You must verify each ballot paper account and draw up a statement as to the result of the verification.2 This is a record of the number of ballot papers expected and the number of ballot papers counted, along with an explanation for any variances.
Any agent may make a copy of this, and you should make copies available for the agents present once verification has been completed.3 The verification statement is a key communication tool that will help to ensure that candidates and agents are confident that the processes at the verification and count are transparent and that they will produce an accurate result.
As with all aspects of the verification and count process, transparency is key and the process followed should be clear to all present.
The key stages of the verification process are described in the following table:
Stage | Action to follow |
---|---|
Opening the packets of unused ballot papers |
|
Opening the ballot boxes |
|
Organising the ballot papers |
|
Reconciling the papers |
|
Cross-checking processes
It is easy for simple arithmetic or transposition errors to be made, particularly when people become tired. You therefore need to put in place processes to mitigate this risk, such as ensuring that the recording of figures and every calculation is checked by more than one person.
The ballot papers are placed into bundles at various stages of the verification and it is important that procedures are put in place to double-check that the bundles have the correct number of ballot papers in them and, at the count stage, that they contain no more votes than the maximum allowed. This will be crucial to the accuracy of the verification and count.
You should make staff aware of this during briefings/training and senior staff should be alert to this at all times and intervene immediately if this is not being done.
- 1. Schedule 1 rule 45 Representation of the People Act 1983 (RPA 1983) ↩ Back to content at footnote 1
- 2. Sch 1 rule 45(5) RPA 1983 ↩ Back to content at footnote 2
- 3. Sch 1 rule 45(5) RPA 1983 ↩ Back to content at footnote 3
- 4. Sch 1 rule 45(5) RPA 1983 ↩ Back to content at footnote 4
- 5. Sch 1 rule 45(1) RPA 1983 ↩ Back to content at footnote 5
- 6. Sch 1 rule 45(5) RPA 1983 ↩ Back to content at footnote 6
- 7. Sch 1 rule 45(6) RPA 1983 ↩ Back to content at footnote 7
- 8. Sch 1 rule 45(1) RPA 1983 ↩ Back to content at footnote 8